castysconstellation

[castysconstellation]

For all of the northerners that stood up for Texas during our freeze and said, "Don't make fun of them, they've never dealt with this before. Their infrastructure isn't made for snow and freezing."

This one is for you.

Where I live 108°F with 80% humidity with no wind is normal.

Pacific North West is dealing historic best waves 35-40°C or 95-105°F.

First of all. Don't make fun of them for bitching about the heat. Just like Texas isn't built for a freeze and our pipes burst, Pacific North West isn't built for heat and a lot of their homes don't have AC.

If you live somewhere with a high humidity like 80+ HUMIDITY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. The "humidity makes it feel cooler" is a lie once it gets beyond a point.

If you live somewhere with a lower humidity, misters are nice to cool off outside.

Once you get over 90°F (32°C) a fan will not help you. It's just pushing around hot air. (I mean if you can't afford a small AC unit because they're expensive as hell, by all means a fan is better than nothing).

If you have pets, those portable AC units aren't safe. If your pets destroy the outtake thing, it'll leak CO2. Window units are safer.

Window AC units will let mosquitoes or other small bugs in. Sucks, but that's life.

Now is not the time to me modest. If you have to cover for religious reasons, by all means. If you don't, I've seen people wear short shorts and a swim top. It's not trashy if it keeps you from getting heat stroke.

If you do have to cover up for religious reasons, look for elephant pants or something similar. They're made with a breathable material.

Shade is better than no shade, but that shit it just diet sun after some point. Don't think shade will save you from heat stroke.

I know the "drink your water" is a fun meme now, but if you're sweating excessively you need electrolytes. Drink Gatorade, Powerade, or Pedialite PLEASE. I don't care if you're fucking sitting in one spot all day. That shit WILL save you from heat stroke.

Most importantly. RESEARCH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAT STROKE AND HEAT EXHAUSTION PLEASE!

If you're diabetic and can't drink Gatorade, mix water, fruit juice, and either lite salt or pink salt

If you can afford it, cover windows with thick curtains to insulate the house

If you have tile floors, lay on them with skin to tile contact. If you don't, laying your head on cool counters works too.

If the temperature where you're at is hotter than your body temperature, don't wear heat wicking clothing. Moisture wicking is safe though.

Check your medication labels. Many make you more susceptible to sun and heat

-Room temperature water will get into your body faster. This is something I learned doing marching band in high summer in Georgia, and it saved all of our asses. Sip it, don't gulp it, especially if you're getting into the red; same goes for whatever fluid you're drinking. And just in general drink during the day.

-If you are moving from an air conditioned space to an un-air conditioned space, if at all possible try to make the shift gradual. When my dad and I were working outside and in un-ac houses a few years ago, he'd turn the air down to low in the truck about ten-fifteen minutes before we got where we were going. This way your body doesn't go from low low temps to high temps. S'bad for you.

-If you can, keep your lights off during the day. Light bulbs may not generate a lot of heat, but the difference is noticeable when it gets hot enough. I literally only turn my bedroom light on in the evening when it gets too dark.

Don't be afraid to just like... pour water on yourself if you need to. The evaporation will cool you off.

Put your hand to the cement for 15 seconds. If you can't handle the heat, it'll burn your dog's paws. Don't let them walk on it.

Dogs with flat faces are more prone to heat stroke. Don't leave them out unsupervised.

Frozen fruit is delicious in water.

Wet/Cold hat/handkerchief on your head/neck will help you stay cool.

Pickle juice is great for electrolytes! You can even make pickle juice Popsicles!

Heat exhaustion is more, "drink water and get you cooled off." Heat stroke is more "Oh my god call 911."

Image Description provided by @loveize

[Image description: an infographic showing the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The graphic is labeled "Heat Dangers: First Warning." Signs of heat exhaustion: faint or dizzy, excessive sweating, cool, pale, clammy skin, rapid, weak pulse, muscle cramps. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat exhaustion, get to a cool, air-conditioned place, drink water if conscious, and take a cool shower or use cold compress. Signs of heat stroke: throbbing headache, no sweating, red, hot, dry skin, rapid, strong pulse, may lose consciousness. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat stroke, call 911. End description]

Be safe.

-fae

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I just think I should tell everyone that now that My Golden Blood is over and The Ex-Morning is airing, some of you could finally benefit from watching Be My Favorite if you haven't already. Just a thought.

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Haven't watched anything KristSingto recently but he's right

You can think of fanservice what you want. But the moment you want to police or censor it, it turns into something really problematic. And this stance comes from 2 or even 3 different oppinioned sides but they ironically melt into the same outcome.

But at the end of the day most people forget / ignore, regardless of anything, fanservice still helps normalising public queer affection. And let's be real, most of the stuff in those stage and event shows are that... a show or even a performance! Do you protest at your local theater when they have queer characters kissing? Do you notice how this sounds in a sentence? Yes actors are real people and not characters but especially BL actors & idols still perform stage shows and kind of have a public enertainer persona. You notice how different they are on stage vs. in their personal live streams + nowadays most actors are even very honest about just doing fs for show & fun and often genuine (platonic) affection towards their acting partner but don't pretend to be actual dating (and the ones who do will most likely not lightheartedly come out with it like that... apparently there are exceptions but I have not enough insight on them to judge). You should watch some serious interviews or live stream (translations) of your favs now and then maybe to learn more about them and the industry, they are more than just pretty faces... Actors in just my bubble who talked open about the fanservice topic as far as legally possible at least: JamesSu, Perth Nakhun and I guess we can count Pavel and Nut as well.

What fans make out of it is a whole different story.... and one of the reasons people want to shut down fanservice as a whole. But imagine how lighthearted, fun and easy going this whole thing could be if we didn't had all these toxic naive fans who think every interaction is proof of actors dating (or worse: cheating) in RL. That mindset of "we are BL fans of course we are delulu" is not a joke anymore among some of them. They srsly take pride in that... babes you are part of the problem, stop encouraging it!

Then on the other side, being critical of some of the practices of the industry is one thing but it should not lead into backwards queer censoring... but that's what some are swaying to with their "real people queerbait" agenda or getting the cringes when (samesex) people interact romantically or erotically during live events (that's a bit of a you thing my dears. not necessarily in a queerphobic way but in a purity / shy way and that is a you problem to deal with not anyone elses problem)....

And a lot of people don't even understand or get what most people criticise about fanservice and just jump onto the ban-fanservice train. Without understanding the nuances nor the actual industry circumstances. Like one main argument here isn't even true. Lot of people assume actors get forced into fs. Which is not true (source: one of Perth Nakhuns Q&A vids, the 2. vid i think). BL actors usually know what they get into by entering the industry, decide with eo how much they want to do. Now that can still cause internal personal conflicts like one going over board or not playing enough but that's human miscommunication. Or companies can still be bastards but it's unfair to generalise it over the whole industry when we nowadays have companies who give their actors that freedom.

There are still some points to criticise, definitely. Like I personally dislike how MCs and sponsors sometimes treat actors during events or how fans scream at every little move or glance like crazy.... But the topic is a bit more nuanced (as always in this world) than how most people look at it. I just mean it really always sticks out when you talk with people about their reasons why they are anti fanservice that they just repeat after another with no sources or without actual up to date information or only look at it from one side.

I personally am in the middle. I only like fs when the actors have fun with it and are transparent about it. In the end it comes down to actors consent what they want to give to the audience (reason why it annoys me when people write "i feel like i am interrupting something here / am intuding their privacy" the actors consented! they want you to watch if you want to see it! consent babes! it is fine)

(when i see someone coming in with "but Krist is a homophobe" I will bite you. I am not even his fan and already researched what happened back then when I first saw those accusations when I got into BL 2021ish. It is really not that hard to look up the source and reports of people who were live pressent at the time to understand what went down back then. Ya know instead of believing rumors that twist and lie for rage bait)

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so fucking funny 😭

(twitter link)

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Hot take (from a film nerd): GMMTV's BL series Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist FAILED because the company DESIGNED it that way.

And this isn't the first time GMMTV has doomed its own productions in order to fund bigger projects. This is actually a common industry tactic, formally called Cannibalizing.

Btw, video above is of Mark Pakin, lead actor of the series, sharing his thoughts about the market failure of his show and how he's dealing with the loss.

Anyway, let me explain my point above:

When large media conglomerates manage to corner a market with a particular genre/format that other companies haven't done before (or are slow in adapting), they do one of two things: 1) they saturate the market with content to eliminate competition, or 2) they experiment with their chosen genre in order to fit it into other markets and fanbases.

Both options require a large capital, but generate great profit once done successfully. For longevity however, companies opt for the second option, as product sustainability in media is dictated by the size of the fanbase.

For example, WeTV, a giant Chinese media company owned by Tencent, has a corner on the Chinese Costume Drama market (formally known as Xianxia- fantasty/supernatural, and Wuxia- martial arts dramas):

Though other Chinese companies produce similar shows, few competitors have the ability to churn out this type of content as long and as frequent as WeTV can. They produce so many shows in this genre, many of them are actually installments of previous franchises. Some of them even belong into one universe (ala Marvel or DC).

But what happens when a market is saturated? Audiences lose interest. And though it is highly ignorant of me to claim that there is no longer a market for Chinese Costume dramas (as there absolutely is a market for it), the interest cools, especially for new talents. In 2017, they tried to adapt Chinese novels only, in order to secure an automatic fanbase of past readers, but even that failed to fuel interest. They could either keep on hiring the same actors for their shows to sustain the fanbase, or...

Branch out:

The Untamed was a risk no large company in China at the time would dare to do. It's not the first danmei (xianxia boy's love) adaptation in the country, but it was the first from a conglomerate with enough money to shoot, produce, and market one properly. And spend money they did. After paying HEFTY fines to get it out of censorship limbo (it took almost a year and a half post production before the series saw any kind or airtime), paying for re-shoots to make certain scenes less homosexually-suggestive, paying dubbers and translators to dub lines that the censorship board found too risque, and even allegedly paying original author MXTX additional royalties for violating contract obligations once they changed the story, the series finally debuted to a limited WeTV VIP audience.

But the gamble paid off. The Untamed became the most watched series in China to this day, syndicated by over 13 media distributors and translated into at least 10 languages, while boasting a viewership of 10 billion around the world according to Netflix. WeTV was also able to invade other Asian markets through The Untamed, establishing tentative branches (particularly in Boys' Love productions) in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, among others.

WeTV successfully branched out of Xianxia/Wuxia by tapping a fanbase and genre ripe for viewership. But in order to pay for the sheer cost of getting The Untamed to air, they cannibalized these very genres to earn funding.

What this means is that they DOUBLED their production of low-budget Xianxia/Wuxia dramas within a year, to encourage fans to spend money on merch and sponsors to support their artists. These shows often shared the same sets, costumes, cast and crew at no additional cost, had to stick to rigid schedules with no resources for reshoots, and spent very little time on post prod, so that fans can watch shows at once and focus more on buying merch. These shows also often compromised plot and storytelling--instead banking on clichè themes of romance and heroism just to generate enough fans to turn a profit. These cannibalized shows weren't meant to make artists or the project famous-- they're so cheap to make they practically share a budget with a dozen other shows-- instead, the extra profit goes to the projects WeTV is banking for success. Hence shows like The Untamed.

No shade at all to The Untamed. This show holds a special place in my heart. But the way WeTV handled this production, and the backlash on the cast and crew that they failed to mitigate, will always be one of the worst sins they have as a media conglomerate.

(They also better not bungle SmartBoom's marketing, since they're shaping up to make these two their Thai golden goose. Do not disappoint us twice WeTV)

So, is GMMTV doing the same thing?

Oh, ABSOLUTELY. They've been doing it FOR YEARS:

This is a list of the most-watched GMMTV BLs on Youtube as of 2024. Notice that apart from around four shows, all shows listed here are school-set BLs (and this is debateable, since the four exceptions feature characters who are also school-aged, but the story doesn't necessarily revolve around university). Though GMMTV doesn't have a corner on the BL genre (since all media companies in Thailand produce BLs), they HAVE saturated the genre of school-set BLs.

But they are trying to branch out, because they NEED TO. KinnPorsche AND Cutie Pie absolutely decimating their competition in 2022 just proved to GMMTV that they already lost their stronghold on queer media. They released Only Friends to ride the wave of sex-heavy shows, but they couldn't commit to the demand and would eventually lose out to MeMindY and Mandee. They tried fielding a new supernatural genre in My Golden Blood, but the second season of Pit Babe is turning out to be the more polished execution of an out- of-the-box concept.

But they NEED to keep trying, or else they'll lose the market completely. This is why they've recalled their three original pillars back into the fold- KristSingto, TayNew, and OffGun, who are all set to air shows within this quarter. They've shaken up their management, and are swapping out branded pairs willy-nilly in order to find the best combination of chemistry and appeal.

And lastly, they're cannibalizing their own shows in order to fund bigger, more bankable, heavy-hitters.

What's worse is that they even cannibalized one of their most bankable pairs, OffGun, in The Trainee:

whose show profits were rumored to have paid for the expensive franchising rights to Ossan's Love and My Love Mix-Up. GMM apparently did not anticipate how strict Japanese IP could be, and sustained considerable losses for their TayNew adaptation of Cherry Magic.

Rumor on X also has it that the show boycott of Chinese fans, triggered by the dissolution of the OhmNanon pair, also inflicted major market share losses for GMM. This is why they're trying to court Korean fans instead with their upcoming adaptation of Scarlet Heart Ryo.

Poor Mark. It really wasn't his fault.

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist was a tonally-off production from the beginning, even with my favorite Thai director P'Pepzi (of My Stand-In fame) at the helm. The scenes were haphazardly-cut, the pacing was either too fast or too slow at times, and the set designs and costumes were recycled, with sometimes no continuity, between takes. It's such a far cry from P'Pepzi's usually meticulous work-- as if she wasn't given enough prod time and resources to enact a vision for this show.

But the total loss for me was both Mark and Ohm, especially Mark, who I've come to recognize as a good actor. It was as if both their hearts weren't in these characters, and that they couldn't connect to these people at all. They were all very one-dimensional-- caricatures of actual people. Which is such a shame, because I did feel like they did give their all. It's just that GMMTV couldn't be bothered to improve the material or provide workshops that would help newbies like Ohm connect to his character. What a waste of their talents.

So Mark, it really isn't your fault, but a damn shame that you're blaming yourself anyway. I hope your next vehicle will prove better against the media lords' odds.

[castysconstellation]

puppy gromit

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OP: Back when I was young, I couldn’t afford nice clothes. Now, I buy pretty dresses for the 18-year-old me. (cr 农村的陈奶奶)

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Sammie :(

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it seems like the vampires (collective) don't really understand what the golden blood does. it's special. so they assume it makes them more powerful, or it's addictive, or it tastes better. but honestly it just seems like it's turning mark into a human. how pissed would nakan be if he finally gets a mouthful of tong's blood and instead of making him the number 1 most specialest and perfectist vampire in the world, it just turns him into a normal ass guy

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Japanese BL friends, is anyone aware of a list of the cafes/restaurants Togawa and Nozue visited in Old Fashion Cupcake? I believe they were real places and I have a vague recollection of people going to some of the spots. Does anyone remember?

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do you guys know about the internet roadtrip? right now somewhere between 500 and 900 people are collectively 'driving' a car on google street view trying to make it to canada. it's fun i recommend it

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oh boy i can't wait to go to my greek classics class where the professors lecture about whichever random greek myths are most relevant to the protagonist kid that week. thank god i'm not him — that trojan horse lecture was a little ominous. anyway. do you think he got dicked down during eros week

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i think its true that you can use dude, bro, queen, babe- literally any nickname in a gender neutral way, and its also true that if somebody tells you to cut that out because they dont like it then you stop. and i think if you go on to insist 'im not misgendering you i mean it in a gender neutral way' then you get the glock. simples!

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Going to the zoo today perhaps I'll treat myself with a flattened penny... Perhaps I'll indulge myself, andget a flattened penny

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